The vessel is of bombe form, with a rounded body, pronounced shoulder, and slightly flared rim — a shape characteristic of the wide-mouthed censers produced at Jingdezhen during the seventeenth century.
The decoration is executed in wucai enamels — literally “five colours”: iron red, green, yellow, blue, and aubergine. These pigments were applied over the glaze after the initial high-temperature firing and fixed in a subsequent firing at a lower temperature.
Two four-clawed dragons are depicted in flight amid flaming wisps, confronting one another around a flaming pearl. Beneath them, stylised waves and a blue rock evoke the sea, a symbol of cosmic power. The dragons are rendered with striking vitality.